Search and Rescue
by Yuli5ele
Summary: MacGyver is asked to conduct a search and rescue for a missing Phoenix employee, and ends up with more trouble than he bargained for... Now finished!
1. Default Chapter

Dr Katy Marks is my own character that I added to this story. Look out for sequels coming soon!

Disclaimer: I do not own MacGyver (much as I would like to!) or any of the characters, only the character of Katy Marks.

*****

There was a knock at the door.

"Come in!" Pete Thornton shouted, sitting behind his desk, surrounded by a mountain of paperwork. The door swung open and his best friend MacGyver stuck his head in.

"Hi Pete! You called?"

"Yeah, yeah. Come in and take a seat."

MacGyver came in and closed the door behind him.

"Wow, Pete, this sounds serious."

"Yeah, it is. I got a call early this morning from the Phoenix branch in Vancouver, Canada. One of the employees has been working with a group of natives from a village about 50 or 60 miles outside Vancouver, up in the mountains. She's been missing for over a week now."

"Well, haven't they got a search and rescue team up there?" MacGyver asked, a frown beginning to form on his face. 

"Yeah, but they won't fly near the village. They haven't got anyone to send out to look for her that knows the area. Apparently, there've been reports of the villagers doing some pretty strange things in the last few weeks."

"Like what?"

"Unexplained lights and explosions in the forest in the middle of the night, groups of people wandering around for no reason and a few mystery deaths that no-one can account for."

"Deaths?!" MacGyver exclaimed. "What about the police?"

"They leave the village alone most of the time. It's too far out of town and the people don't like strangers coming into their territory."

"Which is why no-one's tried a rescue?" MacGyver made an educated guess.

"Yeah. Look, Mac, I know it's a lot to ask, but you're the best person I know to handle this type of thing, and I really appreciate…"

"Don't worry about it, Pete. I'll leave this afternoon. Umm… this employee, what's his name?"

"Her name. Dr. Katy Marks, from Hampshire, England. She just started at Phoenix six months ago."

"Okay, I'll let you know when I get there."

"Thanks, Mac. Thanks a lot," Pete looked very relieved.

"No problem," MacGyver grinned back as he left the office.

*****

By the time he'd flown all the way to Vancouver, no one would tell him anything. He learned that this Dr. Marks had no relatives in North America and very few friends to speak of. The receptionist he spoke to said she was a nice enough person really, but because she travelled a lot, not many people in the area knew her very well. 

They gave him a map of the area, marked with the location of the village and wished him good luck. It was rather disconcerting that the receptionist's parting words were, 

"Stop worrying. If you're not back in a few weeks, I'll call Mr. Thornton and let him know."

*****

The helicopter dropped him off about ten miles away from the village, on a gentle grassy hill. He'd asked the pilot to take him further, but he refused. Something to do with all the weird behaviour in the area later. It made some people superstitious. MacGyver shrugged to himself. It made little difference; he would have had to search the area for the missing scientist anyway, this just meant he had slightly further to walk. 

About an hour into his hike, and making good time, MacGyver noticed sets of tracks crossing the rough path he was following. They were bare human footprints. He bent down to inspect them. Some of the tracks were almost worn away, but over the top was a fresh set of tracks, maybe only an hour or two old. MacGyver debated with himself as to which lead he should follow. Eventually he stood up, and stepped off the path in the direction of the footprints. 

*****

MacGyver knelt down in the bushes. He knew someone was following him. He'd been following the tracks for a few hours now, and they weren't exactly leading him in a straight line. But there was someone behind him as well. Whether it was the same person who had made the tracks, or someone that was following the footprints the same as him, he didn't know. But it was time to find out. He stayed absolutely still and quiet and waited.

A few minutes later a girl came running past and then stopped and looked around. MacGyver watched her closely for a minute. She was inspecting the tracks and seemed confused by MacGyver's sudden disappearance.

_'Oh come on! That's probably the lady you're looking for!'_ MacGyver thought to himself. Then he shook his head and stepped out of the bushes, onto the path that ran right past the shallow stream. She stepped back as soon as she saw him and looked ready to run, when MacGyver said,

"Dr. Marks? Katy Marks?"

"Yes," came her surprised reply. "Who are you?"

"My name's MacGyver. The Phoenix Foundation sent me to find you."

"Oh really? How nice!" she said sarcastically. 

"What's going on? Who are you tracking?" MacGyver could sense that something else was going on here but he couldn't put his finger on it.

"Look, it would probably be a lot better if you just went home. It's not safe here," Katy turned away from him as he walked closer. 

"What happened? I'm not going anywhere until I get the whole story, okay?" MacGyver grabbed her arm and forced her to look at him. She stood several inches shorter than him at about 5'8'' or 5'9''. Her blue eyes stared up at him, full of worry and pain, as well as a flicker of hope. He noticed the smudges of dirt down her face and the old tracks of tears. Her longish brown hair was tangled and swept back, as if she'd tried to keep it out of the way.

"Come on, what's going on around here? Why didn't you contact someone?"

"I couldn't. The people at the village won't let me leave the area, and they won't let me interfere either."

"Interfere with what?" 

Katy sighed and stared down at the small footprints on the bank. 

"Well, let's go back to the village and I'll tell you on the way." She started walking back the way she'd come. 

"Doesn't this village have a name?" MacGyver asked her. She smiled for the first time since he'd seen her.

_'It makes her look twice as pretty,'_ he thought randomly, before getting back to the matter at hand.

"Yeah, it does," she replied, "but I can't pronounce it! Most the things around here are still in the old Native American languages. You can ask the elders back at the village, if you really want to know."

"Are they going to be okay with me being here?"

"Well, they don't usually like strangers, but they let me rent a room there sometimes, when I'm doing my research. After they'd gotten used to me, of course. They're not that bad really, they're just doing what they think is right."

MacGyver glanced at her as they walked.

"Is it right to hold you against your will?"

She sighed again.

"I suppose I'd better tell you what's happening before we get there."

"Yes please."

"I've been coming out here for a couple of months now, to record the number of different species of wildlife in these forests. The elders of the village offered me a place to stay, which is infinitely better than camping. So I took them up on it. Then about two weeks ago, I came up here and they were acting really strangely, like they were hiding something. When I was in the forest, I found one of the kids running around with a bomb."

"A bomb? What do they want a bomb for?!"

"That's what I asked them. Now, these people are very religious. They live by the word of their god, and they obey every law, you have to understand that. They claim their god told them it was coming; the end of days, and the end of the world. They believe that their god will favour them in the next life if they help things along a bit."

"What?!" MacGyver stopped walking and turned to face Katy.

"Yeah. They've been gathering nuclear bombs, I don't know where they got them from, and they plan to blow them all up together."

"Oh man! That would cause global destabilisation! It would wipe all life from the face of the earth!!"

"I know. I've been trying to stop them, but there's not an awful lot I can do by myself."

The look on MacGyver's face was devastating. He looked so angry and determined, that Katy was almost afraid of him. 

"MacGyver?" she said quietly. He grabbed her arm roughly, adding,

"Come on, we have to get to that village."  Katy bit her tongue to keep from saying anything, and led the way down the slope to the village. 

They came out of the trees fairly quickly. Half way up the next hill, among the scattered trees and boulders, was a cluster of buildings, settled on a large outcropping of granite rock. 

"Okay, where are these elders? I want to talk to them!" MacGyver demanded.

"MacGyver, I don't think that's such a good idea."

"Why not?"

"Because they won't like what you have to say. Believe me, I'm already tried. They'll either lock you up, or they'll kill you."

MacGyver took a deep breath.

_'Okay, maybe I was being a little rash there. But how am I going to get their attention and get them to stop this?'_

He looked at Katy. She was looking pale and scared.

"Right, what do you suggest?" he asked her, more patiently this time. 

"Why don't we go and get some dinner and then we can work out what we're going to do?"

"Fine," he sighed.


	2. Chapter 2

Katy wiggled the key in the lock, mentally cursing when it refused to turn. Trying the handle again, with no luck, she leaned against the door momentarily, before stepping back and kicking it viciously. MacGyver raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment when the door groaned and swung open to reveal the darkened room behind. Leading the way into the kitchen, she reached out to flick the light switch. It flickered briefly, before bursting into a shower of sparks and fading out. MacGyver reacted instinctively as soon as he saw the sparks, pulling her into him and turning away, in order to shield her. She gasped.

_'Perfect! First the door jams, then the lights blow… He must think I'm a right idiot!!'_

She noticed he hadn't really let go of her, although he had loosened his grip. She glanced up and saw him watching her. After a moment of eyes contact, there was an awkward pause and he stepped back, rather belatedly. Katy knew she was going slightly red and ducked her head to try and hide it. 

Looking up at the light fixtures, rather than looking at her, he pointed out,

"I think you blew a fuse. Looks like an electrical charge overload. Where's your fuse box?"

"Over there," she pointed to the far wall, where there was a small wooden cupboard away from the others. "There're some spare fuses in the box too."

She walked deliberately in the opposite direction, muttering something about cooking some dinner. He sighed and quickly changed the fuse, then the light bulb, which had also blown. 

"Is spaghetti alright?" she called across to him.

"Yeah. With mince?"

She chuckled, "No, I'm a vegetarian."

He smiled at this. "Me too."

*****

MacGyver put down his cutlery and was finishing the last mouthful of his dinner, when a thought came to him.

"Katy, earlier today, when we met in the forest, who were you following?"

"Another one of the kids, with another bomb. I was hoping he would lead me to where the others were kept."

She picked up the plates and moved over to the sink.

"Do they always use kids?" MacGyver asked, as he got up and started helping to clean up. Katy shot him an appraising look.

"Yeah, they do. The children are sacred to their way of life, so of course, they would be the ones to destroy the world."

Suddenly there was a shout from outside, and some men with torches rushed past the window. MacGyver ran out of the house, followed closely by Katy. 

"Look, look!" someone shouted. The sky lit up as something exploded somewhere down below them. The whole forest seemed to be glowing. A cheering went up around them.

"What's going on?" MacGyver questioned, a bit breathlessly. Katy opened her mouth, but they were interrupted,

"Another one has been added to our collection. You see the men going out with torches to find the spirit guides and ask for directions."

"Another one? Another bomb?!" MacGyver rounded on the stranger. The man was tall and held an air about him that suggested leadership. The other members of the gathering crowd stepped back respectfully. 

"Who are you?" the man asked in confusion.

"Umm, elder, this is MacGyver. He works for the same people I do," Katy introduced him. The elder turned to her, glaring,

"Dr. Marks, you would bring a stranger into our town?"

She shrank back and remained silent. MacGyver looked back and forth a few times, before interrupting,

"How can you do this? How can you doom the whole planet? Billions of people will die!"

The elder smiled at him, despite the murderous look on MacGyver's face.

"Our god wishes it so, and so it shall be done."

"I can't allow you to do this. I can't watch you destroy the whole planet."

He laughed softly.

"It is too late. The final messenger will be sent at first light, and then this world shall end, and the new world shall begin."

There was silence through the town, as the elder looked at the two of them and smiled smugly.

"What does the final messenger do?" MacGyver whispered to Katy.

"He blows up the bombs," she whispered back, never taking her eyes off the elder. 

"Although it is a shame, and I'm sorry it had to be this way, Dr Marks…" the elder added. MacGyver looked confused, and Katy looked stunned, before asking in a shaking voice,

"Who's the messenger?"

"Ben."

Katy went as white as a sheet.

"No!" her whispered protest was hardly audible. The elder stepped away and the crowd began to thin out, most of them following their elder back towards the centre of the village.

"Who's Ben?"

"He's a friend of mine. He helped me out, showed me around the forest, when I first got here. He's a good kid." Katy bit her lip as a single tear ran down her cheek.

"And now they've just put him to death!" she burst out crying as she added this. MacGyver frowned and put his arms around her.

"Hey, don't worry. It's not going to happen. We're not going to let him leave on this suicide trip, okay?"

She nodded, as she buried her face in his jacket. They stayed that way for a few minutes, and then MacGyver began to lead her back to the house. 

*****

"Okay, so we need to find this Ben and stop him from leaving in the morning," MacGyver told her, as he sat down on the couch next to her. She gratefully took the handful of tissues he passed her, and wiped away the remaining tears. 

"Well, even if we did stop him, there're still all those bombs out there somewhere. If Ben doesn't go, they'll send someone else."

MacGyver sighed,

"Right. We could follow him, find out where the bombs are and stop him from detonating them."

Katy shot MacGyver a slightly sarcastic look.

"And then if we lose him, or something goes wrong, the world blows up!"

"Got a better idea, have you?" MacGyver sounded impatient.

"Ben's a good kid. We got along really well, and he's quite intelligent for his age. Maybe if we talk to him, he'd understand the situation and be willing to help us out!"

MacGyver looked a little sceptical. Katy hitched a little closer to him on the couch.

"I think that sounds better than letting a child go out there to die alone."

He sighed, and added,

"Alright, that's what we'll do. Now, where does this kid live?"

"He lives with his older brother on the other side of town. I know the house quite well. But he won't be going anywhere until sunrise."

MacGyver glanced at his watch.

"It's 11.30 PM now. We should try to get a couple of hours sleep, and then we'll go over to the house."

Katy looked at him and caught his gaze. MacGyver could almost see the thoughts running through her mind. She bit her lower lip gently and said very quietly,

"There's only one bed."

MacGyver felt a quiver run through him, and he swallowed.

"I'll take the couch."

"I don't mind if…" she glanced down at her hands, before looking back up at his face. "I mean… if you want to share, I have no objections."

He raised an eyebrow and tried to look surprised, despite the warm rush of arousal that spiked through him at her words.

"That's quite an offer." He seemed to remember saying that before, to another girl. _'Yeah, look how that turned out!'_ he thought, as he remembered that erotic night by the campfire, a few years ago now.

"I wouldn't be asking if I wasn't serious."

He leaned towards her, stopping just before their lips touched. Breathing her in, his eyes fell closed and he kissed her. Instinctively her mouth opened beneath his and her hands slid up around his neck into his hair. MacGyver groaned and pushed her back onto the couch, hands running up and down her sides, until they finally rested on the top button of her jeans. 

Breaking away, he buried his face in her neck.

"Bed. Now," he mumbled, a little breathless. Wordlessly, they stood and Katy took his hand as he led her into the back bedroom, shutting the door firmly behind them.


	3. Chapter 3

"Hey! Come on, wake up!"

Someone was shaking her. Katy rolled over sleepily to try and get away. The someone snorted in her ear. Suddenly a hand prodded her roughly in the back.

"Ouch! Okay, I'm awake!" she muttered. She opened her eyes and blinked in the dim light of the bedside lamp. MacGyver smiled down at her.

"You know, you're kinda cute first thing in the morning."

She groaned.

"What time is it?"

"Four AM. The sun will be rising soon, so we'd better hurry." He looked at her for a long minute, a strange smile on his face, before leaning down to give her a long soft kiss. As they broke apart, Katy grinned.

"I could get to like waking up with you!"

"Me too," he replied, almost whispering. 

"We've got to go," she told him.

"I know." He was still leaning over her. Then he sighed and rolled away from her, towards the edge of the bed. Katy climbed out the other side of the bed and grabbed some clothes from the wardrobe, while MacGyver dressed behind her. 

"Right. Which way is Ben's house?" he asked her, when they were both ready. Katy was stuffing a few bars of chocolate into her pocket, and gestured up the street with her head.

"Just a few minutes that way. This place isn't very big."

*****

Ben could see Dr. Marks and her friend coming down the street and hesitated. He knew his brother had told him that she was evil and her ways were evil. His brother had told him things about her that he had a hard time believing, about how she had tried to stop their plan, and about how she was trying to destroy their god in the eyes of his people. But then he knew her. He had spent months learning about new things with her. She knew lots of things and she had promised to teach him more. She couldn't really be evil, could she? She was trying to protect the animals, trying to help the forest.

In the end, the belief that he should do what was right for his people won out, and he turned and ran away from them, ducking down behind a fence to hide. 

"Ben!" he heard her shouting. There were running footsteps coming towards him, and then they slowed and stopped. He peered out of his hiding place to see the doctor and her friend standing outside his house.

"Damn it, MacGyver, he got away!"

"I thought you said he was your friend?"

"Yeah, I thought he was. Who knows what his family's told him to make him think he can't trust me! I bet it was that scheming brother of his. I bet he's told him we're evil people and we're going to hurt him! It would be just the sort of thing he'd do!"

"I take it he doesn't like you much, huh?"

"No, we never really got on. He thought I was interfering. Another one of those religious things, I guess."

"So Ben might not want to be found. This could be a problem."

Katy chuckled,

"Yeah, understatement!"

MacGyver stuck his hands in his pockets and frowned as he thought carefully.

"Okay, we need to keep an eye out. Sunrise starts in twenty minutes. Do we know which direction he'll be going?"

"The same way we came up yesterday. I know it has to be somewhere to the north west of here." 

"How do you know that?"

"Because that's where all the other children were heading."

Then he surprised her by taking her hand as they walked back down the street to the north. Katy glanced up briefly at his face as they walked. He looked serious and very concerned. Sensing her eyes upon him, he smiled down at her and squeezed her hand affectionately.

"Don't worry about it. I'm not going to let anything happen, to you or Ben. We _will_ stop this."

She nodded; reassured that at least she wasn't alone. 

They reached the edge of the village, where the large overhang of granite rock allowed them to see out over the landscape. MacGyver patted her on the shoulder, pointing to the horizon.

"Here it comes." The edge of the sky was lit in a deep yellow orange and it slowly began to spread upwards in a flood of red and gold. 

"Now, we know he has to come through this way. It's too steep to get down the hill any other way. I'm going to stand over on the other side of the rock. Keep watching."

Katy stared out at the beautiful colours of the sunrise. She loved getting up in the morning just to see this fascinating sight. 

MacGyver looked down the hill at her from his position above the large rock. Her face was in profile to him, and he could see the vibrant colours in the sky reflected across her skin. Her hair flowed back in the breeze, tinted with golden highlights as the first ray of pure sunlight crept over the horizon. In that frozen moment, she looking so beautiful, a natural beauty that made MacGyver drawn in a long shaky breath. He found himself thinking,

_'Even if nothing else good comes of this, at least I've found her. I'm not letting her go without a fight. I wonder if she'd come back to LA with me…'_

Suddenly a shout from below shook him out of his musings, and he realised his daydreaming had made him blind to his surroundings. Katy was shouting to him, even as young Ben raced down the hill in an attempt to make it to the relative safety of the trees. MacGyver leapt off the edge of the granite rock and slid down the loose dirt beneath it. He knew he'd have to go at a dead run to have any chance of catching up with the boy. Some distance behind, he could hear Katy running after him, although the roaring of the wind in his ears made it difficult to tell how far behind. He mentally swore when Ben got to the tree line a few hundred yards in front of him. 

Stopping for a few seconds to catch his breath, Katy caught up.

"Which way'd he go?" she panted. MacGyver gestured over to the north. The undergrowth had been disturbed and there were broken branches and twigs scattering the forest floor. 

"Let's go," was all he said in return. Setting off again at a run, he hoped that they weren't too late.

_'God, I hope I can get to Ben before… well, you know. Please, please don't let me screw this up!'_ he prayed silently. 

The trail they were following led right passed the bank MacGyver had found Katy at the previous day. He knew they had to be close behind; the water was still rippling from where he had slipped into the stream. MacGyver doubled his efforts, pushing himself into a sprint even though his legs were beginning to feel really tired. Eventually, he caught sight of Ben ahead of him, and with a bit of extra energy, he reached out and grabbed him, tackling him to the ground. 

Ben struggled, fighting back against MacGyver as he tried to keep him from escaping.

"Ben! Benny!" Katy dropped to her knees next to them. The boy gave up and let MacGyver hold him, concentrating on his scientist friend instead.

"Dr. Katy, please! I did not do anything wrong! My brother… he said you wanted to hurt me. Please!"

Katy looked shocked. MacGyver relaxed his grip a little, still slightly out of breath. 

"No, Ben, no! I'd never hurt you, trust me! We want to help your people, but your brother thinks I'm getting in the way. That's why he lied to you. Please believe me!"

"Then let me go." Katy looked at MacGyver, who nodded and sighed. Slowly he released him and stood up. Ben didn't try to run again, but he moved as far away from MacGyver as he could get. Katy tried again,

"Ben, you have to listen to me. What the elders have asked you to do is wrong. You remember what I told you about how some people in the world like to kill the animals in forests for fun?" At his hesitant nod, she continued, "Well, it's the same here. The elders think that by setting off those bombs, they're doing everyone a favour, but its just murder. They're going to kill everyone and everything on the planet."

Ben's eyes widened and he stared at Katy in shock.

"No… my people wouldn't do that…" 

MacGyver interrupted,

"It's true, Ben. It's a horrible truth but we wouldn't lie to you. We need your help to stop this. It's up to you. You can help us save the world or you can be a part of the problem."

Ben was silent for a minute, and then he nodded, a sad expression on his face.

"Yes, Dr. Katy, I will help you. But my family will be very angry with me."

Katy smiled and ruffled his hair playfully.

"It's okay, we'll take care of you. Believe me, you never have to see them again if you don't want to."

He reached out and hugged her impulsively. Katy relaxed and when she looked over at MacGyver, the relief in her eyes was obvious. He watched her and was glad that he'd taken her advice about confronting him with the problem, instead of deceiving him. He was a clever child and he seemed to understand the consequences of what he was about to do. MacGyver prayed that it wasn't too late. If the villagers got any wind of what they were about to do… or if someone else tried to set off the bombs… He shook his head to clear it of these thoughts. He had made a promise to Katy and a promise to Ben, and he was not going to let them down. Even if it meant sacrifice. 


	4. Chapter 4

I'm sorry this took so long coming, and I apologise if you were waiting. I've had a lot of computer trouble recently and I just got it back from the shop yesterday, so the first thing I'm doing is posting this!!

~~~

Ben scrambled up onto the rocky ledge just above their heads, calling for them to follow. They had asked him to show them the location of the bombs, and he had done just that, managing to lead them almost round in circles, under they started up the rockiest, steepest mountainside MacGyver had ever had to climb without a harness. Ben was having no problems with it, but Katy kept glancing down behind them and flinching. MacGyver resolutely decided not to look down as well, just in case, and stuck to the task of keeping Ben within their sights. 

"Dr. Katy! Mr. MacGyver!" came his muffled shout. MacGyver and Katy shared an exasperated glance, before they helped each other climb up to the ledge. Once there they could see where Ben had gone. A wide crack in the rock face presented the mouth of a narrow cave. Katy shivered unwillingly at the dark and cold feeling she got just by looking at the entrance. MacGyver sensed her discomfort and walked in first, pulling his flashlight out of his pack as he did so. She followed him very closely, not wanting to be left alone. Ben was sitting on the ground at the back of the cave, lighting an old oil lamp, which had obviously been left there from previous trips to the cave. To the right of them, the cave opened out and dropped away. MacGyver swung his light round, as he noticed a thick bundle of wires running up the slope towards them. They were connected to a detonator, lying on the floor near where Ben was sitting. He picked it up.

"My brother and the elders instructed me to come here and press this," Ben indicated the switch on the detonator. MacGyver carefully passed it over to Katy and told them both,

"Don't touch anything! I'm going to find the bombs. If I yell, run."

"Wait! Mac…" Katy began to protest, but it was too late. He had already slid down the slope to their right and was out of sight. All they could hear was the scrape of loose dirt and stones being dislodged. Katy strained her ears to hear more, and then it all went quiet. 

*****

He skidded down the last three or four feet of the steep slope, coming to a sharp stop at the bottom. Straight ahead of him sat about a dozen grey boxes, all identical, with wires trailing out of each and leading back up the ascent. He dropped to his knees next to the closest one and eased the lid open.

"Holy shit!" he exclaimed to himself. "These are nuclear reactors! How did they get hold of these?"­

Without any further delay, he grabbed his Swiss Army knife from his pocket and began to cut the wires leading to the devices. Then he very gently picked up each one of the boxes and moved them to separate locations around the fairly spacious cave. Having done that, he pulled the rope from his bag and yelled up the slope,

"Katy! I'm throwing you a rope. I want you to tie it to something solid, okay?"

A faint, "Okay," came drifting down to him. 

He threw the pile of rope as hard as he could in the direction of her voice, discovering it was more difficult than it seemed. On the third try she caught the end of the rope and the slack was taken up. Giving it a firm tug to make sure it wasn't loose, he began to pull himself up, slithering on the free stones underfoot.

When he reached the top, he was immediately enveloped in a tight hug from Katy. 

"I'm so glad you're okay!" she explained unnecessarily. 

After giving himself a brief moment to hug her back, he added,

"Well, it's not over yet. We got to get some help, and get someone to take these bombs out of here quickly."

"How?"

"We need to attract the attention of the authorities somehow."

MacGyver thought furiously for a minute, glancing over at Ben, still sitting on the floor at the back of the cave. 

"Okay, we know the Phoenix foundation is aware we're up here, and they know there might be some trouble. We also know that we are a couple of hundred feet above and north of Vancouver. So if we can convince them that there's a good enough reason to come up to mountain, we can get out of here and so can these bombs," MacGyver thought out loud.

"How?"

He didn't reply, but instead he walked outside. The hillside dropped away beneath his feet and MacGyver shuddered. Then he looked above his head. After ten feet up there was a wide ledge of rock, more of a crack in the mountainside, but still wide enough to stand on. Quickly he scrambled over some large boulders and pulled himself up onto the ledge. The view was breathtaking. He spotted the village they had come from, the stream running through the trees and off in the distance, a helicopter was circling the treetops. MacGyver dug his binoculars out of his pocket, and could just about make out the word 'Phoenix' across its side. 

Glancing down, he saw Katy and Ben watching him curiously. 

"There's a helicopter! Now we just need to signal it."

He grabbed a handful of yellow chalk-like rocks from some loose stones nearby and began scratching it into the side of the rock.

"What's that?" Katy called.

"It's called limonite. It's decayed limestone rock. Should be bright enough to attract some attention," he called back. He swiftly drew a large M on the rock face, knowing that Pete and anyone else looking for him would know what it meant. Dusting his hands off, he yelled back down to the cave mouth.

"Toss me your flashlight!"

Katy threw it to him and he flicked the switch. Angling it so it bounced off the  yellow-gold limonite markings, he glanced back at the helicopter. It changed its direction promptly, heading straight for MacGyver's position. 

Feeling satisfied with the results, he turned off the flashlight and climbed carefully back down to the other two. Just a few minutes later, the helicopter was hovering above them and a rope ladder was being swung down towards them. MacGyver gestured for Katy to go ahead. She looked at him steadily for a few seconds, then leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to his lips.

"Thanks Mac," she added, gripping the rope firmly in her hands.

"Just get up there. We can talk later," he grinned back. She nodded, smiling, and expertly climbed the rope ladder. 

*****

MacGyver watched the police detectives leave the room and heaved a huge sigh of relief. He had spent three and a half hours at the Phoenix foundation branch in Vancouver trying to convince them of the events that had taken place on that mountain. The bombs had been taken care of and officials were now investigating the little rural town Katy had been living in for the past few months.

And speaking of Katy…

He hurried down the hall to her office, wanting to catch her before she left. Now that she could no longer work with the natives on the wildlife research, she was out of a job. This was his chance to convince her to come back to LA with him. He knocked softy on the partially open door.

"Come in," came her quiet reply.

"Hey, it's me." He settled himself on the corner of the desk, watching Katy as she stood at the window, gazing out across the city. 

"You okay?"

"Yeah, she sighed. "It's just… this all went so wrong. I was happy here, and now… well, there's nothing else for me to do."

"You'll find something else. You're a very intelligent person, there's loads of stuff you can do, and it doesn't have to be here."

She turned to face him, frowning slightly.

"What do you mean?"

"Have you considered maybe… moving to a new area, making a new start?"

"Well, I had thought about going back to England for a while, but isn't that like running away?"

He didn't say anything at first, but moved over to the window to stand next to her.

"If that's really want you want, I'm not going to stop you. But I had something else in mind."

She glanced at him in surprise.

"Come back to LA with me," he suggested.

"Why?"

"These last few days have been an experience, and not one I really want to forget. I think you're terrific. I don't want to lose you. If you come to LA, you can get a job at Phoenix and we can see each other more often… I mean… if you want to…"

She turned to face him fully. 

"Are you really asking me to move to Los Angeles so we can carry on seeing each other?"

"Well… um… yeah."

Her face slowly lit up in a wide grin, and she hugged him.

"You have no idea how much I was hoping you'd say that!" she whispered. He smiled too and wrapped his arms around her, so glad that she had agreed to stay with him.

"Are you sure this is what you want?" he asked, just to make sure.

"Absolutely! Ever since I met you, I've been dreading the day when you would have to leave. You're the most amazing man I've ever met."

He gently lifted her face up and stared into her deep blue eyes. Then he leaned down and kissed her thoroughly. When they broke apart, panting slightly, she smiled nervously. 

"When do we leave?"

"Tomorrow. It's the start of something new and different, for both of us. I can't wait!"

~~Fin~~

Look out for a sequel! Coming very soon!


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